This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C.xc2xa7xc2xa7119 and/or 365 to Appln. No. 0000183-4 filed in Sweden on Jan. 21, 2000; the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to conveyors, and more particularly to support railings for a curved path.
In the manufacture of different types of products, it is nearly always desirable to move the product to a packaging station or to further processing. The commonest method of moving small-sized products is to employ conveyors or systems of conveyors. The conveyor paths may consist of endless, driven chains or belts. The conveyors normally have support railings, in particular as far as the transport of products with a high centre of gravity is concerned. Support railings also occur in the art on both sides of the conveyor path and throughout the entire length of the conveyor path. Curved sections of the conveyor path are also enclosed on both sides by support railings.
Use is also made of such conveyors for packages of the single-use disposable type for liquid foods. The packages are filled and sealed and finally formed in a filling machine. After the filling machine, the packages are most generally to be conveyed to ancillary machines which, for example, provide the packages with drinking straws or marshal them together into different distribution units. For example, the package may have parallelepipedic form and they are normally relatively tall in relation to their bottom surface, for which reason they must be supported throughout the entire conveying operation between the different machine units. Packages which topple over can cause operational disruption and may also result in damage to the packages themselves. Above all at the curved sections of the conveyor path, it is therefore necessary to provide an efficient support for the packages. The angle of curvature of the curved sections of the conveyor path may vary from 15xc2x0 to 180xc2x0.
Normally, the conveyor paths are formed after, for example, a filling machine as a permanent installation where the support railings are welded in place and no adjustment of them is possible. Today, the market is showing increasing interest in filling machines which are switchable for the manufacture of packages of different volumes. This entails that the conveyor paths which are connected to filling machines must be capable of being adjusted in response to packages of different sizes. With the adjustment of the conveyor paths, there is an accompanying need to be able to adjust the support railings so that they follow the conveyor path and so that they efficiently support the packages. In particular, this applies to the curved sections of a conveyor path. However, the support railings for the curved sections of the conveyor path offer particular problems, since, on adjustment, there will be differences in extent for both the outer and the inner support railing in a curve.
A support railing for a curved conveyor path which can be adjusted for different path widths is, for example, described in Swedish Patent Specification SE 507 540. The Specification describes an expensive and complex method of adjusting the inner support railing. For the outer support railing, use is merely made of a flexible rail of a plastic material. However, this type of support railing has proved to be incapable of giving the support which is necessary in order to support the packages reliably in a curve.
One object of the present invention is to realise a support railing which, in a simple manner, can be adjusted for different conveyor path widths and thereby for different package volumes.
A further object of the present invention is that the support railing is to follow the radius of the conveyor path and, in a reliable manner, support the packages at both the outer and the inner regions of the curve.
Yet a further object of the present invention is that the support railing can be rapidly adjusted without the need of special tools.
These and other objects have been attained according to the present invention in that the support railing of the type disclosed by way of introduction has been given the characterising feature that the support railing has a flexible intermediate section and end pieces secured in both ends and telescopically secured in the brackets